A technical problem associated with preventing unauthorized and/or fraudulent access to media content occurs when a service provider enables users of its respective services (e.g., cable television services, satellite television services, on-demand services) access to live or on-demand online content from content sources (e.g. channels) of which the users are subscribers. For example, video, audio, and other content sources regularly offer content such as sports, entertainment, news, weather, and the like through applications downloaded onto a variety of wired and mobile platforms. As one example, a popular sports content source may offer one or more channels or one or more individual productions of sports content via an application that can be downloaded onto a user's tablet device, smart phone, laptop computer, smart television, and the like, where subscribed-to content can be delivered from the content source over an Internet connection (wired or wireless). In a typical setting, the content source provides its content through one or more service providers such as cable-based service providers, satellite-based service providers, and the like. That is, a typical content source, such as an aforementioned sports, entertainment, news, and/or weather source, produces content which is typically distributed to users through a service provider, such as a cable-based or satellite-based service provider.
Access to streaming content from a content source typically requires users to authenticate themselves as current subscribers to the content source via an account provided by their participating service provider in order to access the content. As can be appreciated, users oftentimes find authentication processes to be frustrating and difficult. Accordingly, content sources or service providers may only require users to authenticate themselves periodically (e.g., once a year, once every 6 months). While this provides for a better user experience, it can and does leave service providers and content sources vulnerable to unauthorized and/or fraudulent access to media content. For example, a common problem that is becoming prevalent in the media content service industry is when users access content without subscribing to a service provider. This can happen when a subscriber authenticates himself/herself on a computing device that is subsequently used by a non-subscriber, when login credentials are shared with non-subscribers, when login credentials are used without their owner's knowledge, etc.
Another common problem is when users bypass regional or blackout restrictions imposed by content distributors (i.e., service providers and/or content sources) by accessing content from a location that is out-of-market with respect to the service provider responsible for providing the requested content to the user. For example, one or more requests for access to a given content item via a content source application may be received from a content requester located in an area not associated with or serviced by the content services provider. Such requests, particularly multiple requests over a given period of time, may indicate that login credentials have been misappropriated or are otherwise being used in an inappropriate or unauthorized manner for the received content requests. As can be appreciated, accessing content provided over a distributed network in an inappropriate or unauthorized manner can be considered a breach of security of the content. Further, inappropriate or unauthorized content access can negatively affect computing and network performance, for example, due to bandwidth usage of content access by unauthorized users, congesting content distributor components that receive content access requests and perform user authentication, etc. With the continually emerging threat of unauthorized access, hacking, and/or other fraudulent use or access of service provider services, a technical solution is needed to reduce or eliminate unauthorized access of content.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present disclosure is provided.